Lei Zhu, Ph.D.
I am an Assistant Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering department within the William States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I am an affiliate faculty member of the School of Data Science (SDS) at UNC Charlotte.
My research lab - Smart Infrastructure and Mobility (SIM), covers Smart Mobility Systems and Spatial Sensing, Big Data in Transportation, Transportation Energy, and Shared and Automated Mobility System Modeling and Simulation. Before joining UNC Charlotte, I was a research scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Prior to joining NREL, I served as a postdoc fellow at the University of Nevada, Reno, and have worked as a Research Engineer in Metropia Inc. for years. I got my Ph.D. degree from the University of Arizona. I am a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of IEEE Smart Cities Technical Committee of Control Systems Society, and a member of ASCE.
My research interests: Google Scholar website
Wi-Fi log Data Analysis and Human Mobility Modeling
Spatial Sensing (GPS, LiDAR, Radar, Camera) and Big Data Analysis
Shared and Automated Mobility and Micro-mobility System Modeling and Simulation
Sustainable Transportation Analysis and Transportation Electrification
Lab News:
09/01/2024: Welcome new lab members: Mr. Qingrong Yang join the group! Welcome onboard!
05/09/2024: [Media&News] Dr. Zhu's Wi-Fi research is reported by WRAL NEWS SPOTLIGHT- Way ahead of its time: small town in Eastern NC creates citywide Wi-Fi system!
03/01/2024: [Media&News] Dr. Zhu's research effort has been reported by UNC Charlotte College of Engineering!
01/18/2024: [Hiring] Open Ph.D. level Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) Position! Starting in Fall 2024.
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Contact information:
Email: Lei.Zhu@charlotte.edu
Office Phone: 704-687-6054
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Graduate Student Hiring (Ph.D. and/or M.S. Level):
I am looking for graduate students with expertise in Systems Engineering, Traffic/Transportation Engineering, OR, AI/ML, Computer Vision, Control Theory, etc. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested.
Visiting Scholars and Collaborations are always welcome!!
Archive
2013
12/31/2023: Dr. Zhu serves as a guest editor for the Special Issue "Sustainable Transportation: Human-Computer Interaction and Intelligent Transportation" at Sustainability [Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 December 2024]
09/18/2023: [Hiring] Open M.S. level Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) Position! Starting in Spring 2024.
08/01/2023: Dr. Zhu serves as a guest editor for the Special Issue "Geographic Information Science in Transportation and Traffic Safety" at Sustainability [Deadline for manuscript submissions: 24 May 2024]
03/31/2023: Mohini is awarded "Master's and Early Doctoral Student Summer Support" ($5,000) from UNC Charlotte!! Congratulations!
02/28/2023: Ms. Mohini Joshi joined us as a research assistant. Welcome!
2012
12/29/2022: Dr. Zhu serves as a leading guest editor for the Special Issue " Intelligent Vehicle, Infrastructure Perception and Control Based on Imaging and Sensing" at Sensors [Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2023, extended to 31 July 2024]
10/20/2022: Dr. Zhu gave a talk about Wi-Fi research titled "Wi-Fi Log Data Processing and Spatial-temporal Analysis for Exploring University Campus Human Mobility Patterns" for the CAGIS Seminar at UNC Charlotte
06/01/2022: Thomas Orton will join SIM Lab as an undergraduate research assistant! Welcome, Thomas!
05/13/2022: 2022 Summer Research Assistant hiring!! urgent hiring and start immediately!
02/13/2022: [Paper] Dr. Zhu's paper "Light-Duty Vehicle Trip Classification using One-Class Novelty Detection and Exhaustive Feature Extraction" will be published in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications!
2011
11/10/2021: [Paper] Shreya Lohar's paper "Sensing Technology Survey for Obstacle Detection in Vegetation" has been published on Future Transportation, Congratulations Shreya!!
10/01/2021: [Paper] Dr. Zhu's paper "Real-Time Highly Resolved Spatial-Temporal Vehicle Energy Consumption Estimation Using Machine Learning and Probe Data" cooperating with researchers from NREL and ORNL, was published at TRR.
10/01/2021: Vamshi Yalavarthi, Xavier Gomez, Josh Rodriguez, joined the SIM lab as research assistants. Welcome, all!
10/01/2021: SIM lab received a donation of Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR from Renu Robotics. Thank you very much for the generous support for our research!
09/27/2021: Shreya Lohar will keep working as an intern at NREL for a project "Infrastructure Perception and Control."
09/07/2021: Dr. Zhu is serving as a Guest Editor, Special Issue "Sustainable and Intelligent Transportation Systems in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic" at Sustainability, 2021. [Deadline for manuscript submissions extended to: 30 September 2023]
07/01/2021: Dr. Zhu is serving as a member of the Technical Committee of 2021 International Conference on Transport and Smart Cities (ICoTSC 2021)
04/30/2021: Shreya Lohar will work as a summer intern (May -July 2021) at National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) for a mowing machine spatial sensing project. Congratulations, Shreya!
03/22/2021: Dr. Zhu is serving as a Session Chair, Technical Session 8: CyberPhysical Systems and Security of Intelligent Power Systems, IEEE Green Technologies Conference 2021
03/10/2021: Dr. Zhu is serving as a Guest Editor, Special Issue "Sustainable and Intelligent Transportation Systems in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic" at Sustainability, 2021.
02/12/2021: An MOU between UNCC (Lead by Dr. Zhu) and NREL has been signed for Spatial Sensing and Advanced Mobility research!
01/24/2021: Dr. Zhu is serving as a special session chair/organizer for IEEE Green Tech 2021 conference.
01/01/2021: Ms. Rachael Yuan will join us as a Ph.D. student in Jan. 2021! Welcome, Rachael!